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Walnut Creek Focuses on Downtown Bar Policy
City Council on Feb. 7 may hear appeal by Lift Lounge of city's attempt to curtail its closing hour.
In the next month, the City Council takes up the issue of the policy for bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.
The City Council is planning to have a day-long workshop on Tuesday, Jan. 24, on multiple topics. Mayor Bob Simmons said he expected the alcohol policy would be on the list of topics.
Pending before the council is the appeal of the Planning Commission's proposed changes to the (CUP) Condition Use Permit for the Lift Lounge & Grill, including scaling back Lift's closing time from 12:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Simmons expected the appeal would go on the council's Feb. 7 agenda.
In 1996, the city adopted an ordinance establishing the CUP process for establishments that serve alcohol. This gave the city the ability to set conditions for the bars and restaurants. "The City has used that process to establish a system with closing hours scheduled to occur at different times," wrote Simmons in an email. "This was done to reduce the number of people who would be leaving the bars and entering the streets at the same time. "
The council had a discussion of the issues on Jan. 18, 2011, including a report from Police Chief Joel Bryden that tallied 470 drunk in public arrests and 284 drunken driving arrests in 2009. That discussion a year ago also included a list of restaurants and bars with licenses that predate the 1996 law and CUP process.
"It is clear that the majority of establishments with those pre-1996 licenses are owned and managed in a way that doesn’t detract from our community, and are managed in a way that is consistent with our vision and policies encouraging an active and alive nighttime downtown," wrote Simmons. "Some of those establishments choose to close early, but others choose to serve alcohol until 2 AM and have had no significant history of police calls. For me, these facts raise the question as to whether it is a question simply of the hour that an establishment closes, or whether it is a question of the competency of its management.
"In contrast, the establishment known as Lift, which operates under a CUP, has had, over the last 18 months, approximately 80 police calls. While many of those police calls are calls you might anticipate from any establishment (e.g., excessive litter, noise….), many were not. "
Last July, a bouncer at Lift Lounge & Grill was arrested on multiple drug counts, including sale, police said.
Another downtown nightclub Walnut Creek police watch closely changed hands earlier this month, operating under new ownership. The 1251 Lounge on Arroyo Way was formerly the Vice Ultra Lounge.
Two men were arrested for assault in the street outside the lounge Dec. 31.
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Triple Canopy
7:12 pm on Sunday, January 15, 2012
Finally.
Lift's management apparently have no idea of how to manage their "restaurant" as to fly under WCPD's radar. I read the staff report on the city's website and the "start time" for Lift, as stated in their business plan, is 9 PM. Fess up Lift ! You're a BAR!
obiwan
8:46 pm on Monday, January 16, 2012
Well, the City Council has sure done a good job of realizing their “vision and policies encouraging an active and alive nighttime downtown”. The place is just teaming with nighttime activity...particularly on the weekends!!!
Central to the Council's “vision and policies” is looking the other way when “restaurant” owners decide that dispensing booze to drunks and wannabe gangstas is more profitable than serving food.
A standard clause in the Conditional Use Permits issued by the City to restaurants that serve alcohol specifies a required ratio of food to liquor sales. Unfortunately, those ratios are rarely, if ever, monitored.
The action pending against LIFT is the first time I’ve ever heard of the City even attempting to modify the CUP of a problem bar. (I do, however, recall that last April the City Council agreed to EXTEND the alcohol service hours of 1515 even though eight police incidents at that establishment had been logged in the previous six months. Kudos to then Councilmember Simmons for voting no on that one.)
And while many downtown establishments are “grandfathered in” and not subject to a CUP, there are still prohibitions in the ABC licenses against running “disorderly houses” or becoming a “law enforcement problem”. How many of those brawls and arrests we’ve all been reading about have resulted in complaints being filed with the ABC? Any?
Time to hold the City Council accountable for their “vision and policies”.
Walnut Creek 925
10:36 am on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
1515 was not asking for an extension, they were pleading their case not to have their hours of operation reduced from 12:30am to 11:30pm. The Dudums being the tricky family they are took the approach of having their employees go to the board and state their case on how their livelihood would be at risk and get some empathy for the people employed by 1515! But really they it shifted the problems 1515 were facing to the problems of the city looking bad to take away potential dollars for employees! Again, smart and tricky snake Dudums......
Walnut Creek 925
10:23 am on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Obiwan: I notice that you always have a lot of insight on all the topics about the local downtown bars, may I ask how many times have you dine on at any one of these establishments??? You do support your local small businesses correct? And if you have ever been there during normal business hours (12pm-8pm) have you seen any of these so called "Wannabe Gangstas?" Or do you see local patrons (white, black, asian, latin, aliens both legal and illegal) supporting their local establishments having fun eating and drinking without any need for local enforcement!
Might I add that this downtown problem of unwanted tax dollars is an issue that the City itself let out of hand.... The Census tract only allows for 7 license (41, 47, & 48) but they are currently operating at 113 license total! I assume that they are fully aware of this issue and that is as simple as econ 101... SUPPLY AND DEMAND!!!! You have a high DEMAND for your city yet you fail to SUPPLY the patrons and business owners with what they want and make it a problem for local law enforcement to do their job because you understaff them....!?!?! Seems like a basic issues of poor management!
We are not living in 1996 anymore when the city originally adopted the CUP against liquor license and this for sure ins't 1916 where walnut creek is just a dirt train and railroad tracks!!! It's 2012, and last I checked we are still in a recession! We need to support vs abort! Stop blaming and get down to the real issues!!!
obiwan
4:11 pm on Wednesday, January 18, 2012
WC925 – funny you should ask about wannabe gangstas– were you one of the two dudes who walked into the Locust Street Subway when I was having lunch there today? One had a hefty diamond stud earring and a hammered silver belt buckle in the shape of a gun. Perhaps it was the weight of the belt buckle that caused his pants to droop so badly. His friend apparently didn’t have a belt at all as a considerable amount of his purple boxers were showing. The second guy sort of sprawled over one of the tables as if he were unbearably sleepy, or drunk, or drugged. While his face was on the table, I noticed a small crescent and star tattoo on his neck behind his left ear, so maybe he was some kind of Muslim. I’ve always understood that Muslims take a rather dim view of public intoxication, so I guess the poor guy must have been bitten by a tsetse fly or something. I would have asked his friend, but the belt buckle sort of put me off.
After sitting/sprawling there taking up TWO tables for several minutes and not ordering anything, they got up and left.
I suppose you can fault me for eating at Subway, a fast food chain, instead of supporting one of our local restaurants. But Redux, next door, doesn’t open for lunch. Think of all the extra people who would be employed and all the extra tax money that would be generated if they did. Maybe we need a REAL restaurant at that location.